Katharina Rathmann

Katharina Rathmann is a Professor of Social Epidemiology and Health Reporting at the Faculty of Nursing and Health, Hochschule Fulda, where she has held a full-time W2 professorship since October 2018. She previously held interim and part-time professorial roles at Hochschule Fulda and TU Dortmund, specializing in rehabilitation sociology and social epidemiology.

Her research focuses on the social determinants of health and health inequalities, particularly among children and adolescents. Key areas include health literacy, life-course transitions, critical life events, and health in populations with intellectual disabilities. She employs empirical social research methods and leads multiple research projects addressing public health challenges.

Prof. Rathmann serves as the lead investigator for the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study in Hesse and is actively involved in projects related to organizational health competence, digital health literacy, and school health promotion. Her work often involves multi-perspective and participatory approaches, especially in disability and inclusion research.

She holds leadership roles in professional organizations, including as spokesperson for the Children and Youth working group and the Organizational Health Competence working group within the German Network Health Literacy (DNGK), and in the German Society for Medical Sociology (DGMS). She also serves on the program committee for the congress on 'Poverty and Health'.

Prof. Rathmann supervises student research projects and leads a team of scientific staff and student assistants at Hochschule Fulda. She acts as an ad-hoc reviewer for several public health and social science journals, including BMC Public Health, PLOS ONE, and International Journal for Equity in Health.

Her research is conducted through a variety of funded projects such as 'Gesundheitschamps', 'DiGKS', 'GeKoMB', 'HeaLO', 'TransWohl', 'BEta', 'SKoL', 'TraWoLiS', 'GeMSe', 'HBSC-HE', and 'BeGK-Co-S', focusing on health competence, transitions, and well-being in educational and care settings.